Families of furniture factory blaze victims to get compensation

CAIRO:The family of each victim killed in the Tuesday’s fire that broke out in a furniture factory north of Cairo will get 5,000 EGP ($700,) governor of Qalyubia Mohamed Abdel Zaher was quoted by Youm7.

The victims will also compensated by the Urban Communities Authority, Abdel Zaher said.

At least 25 labors were killed and 25 others were wounded Tuesday in a fire that broke out Tuesday morning in a 3-storey furniture factory in an industrial zone in al-Obour city north of Cairo, health ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Youm7 Tuesday.

The cause of the fire remains unknown but an anonymous security source told Youm7 that it was due to “an explosion of a gas tank of an air compressor machine inside the factory.” Wooden materials and chemicals inside the factory caused its fast spread, according to the source.

“The burnt factory has been operating for years without an official license,” head of the Obour City Development Authority Amin Ghoneim was quoted by Reuters.

The factory has no emergency exits and that explains the high number of labors who were burnt to death, according to Ghoneim.

At least 40 people were killed last week in a cargo ship – boat collision. The incident has drawn fierce criticism of Egypt’s safety standards.